PUERTO RICO HEAD START STATE COLLABORATION Alejandra alvarez-ibaÑez, Esq.

HEAD START PROGRAM Head Start and Early Head Start programs support the mental, social, and emotional development of children from birth to age 5.  In addition to education services, programs provide children and their families with health, nutrition, social, and other services. Head Start services are responsive to each child and family's ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage.

Head Start Program History In January of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared The War on Poverty in his State of the Union speech. Shortly thereafter, a panel of experts was assembled to develop a comprehensive child development program that would help communities meet the needs of disadvantaged preschool children.  That was how Head Start was designed, to help break the cycle of poverty.  In September of 1995, under the Clinton administration, the first Early Head Start grants were given.

Head Start in Puerto Rico Head Start Programs have been providing services in Puerto Rico since 1965. Today there are 41 different entities that provide Head Start services in Puerto Rico. 19 of those are delegate agencies of ACUDEN. The remaining 22 receive funds directly from the federal government. According to Program Information Report (PIR) 2013- 2014 a total of 32,210 children and pregnant women receive EHS/HS services in Puerto Rico

Head State Collaboration Offices Since 1990, the Administration on Children and Families (ACF) has awarded Head Start collaboration grants to support the development of multi-agency and public and private partnerships at the state and US national levels. Today Head Start State Collaboration Offices (HSSCO) are awarded funds under Section 642B of the 2007 Head Start Act. “The Secretary shall award, upon submission of a written request, a collaboration grant to each State and to each national administrative office serving Indian Head Start programs and migrant or seasonal Head Start programs to facilitate collaboration among Head Start agencies (including Early Head Start agencies) and entities that carry out activities designed to benefit low-income children from birth to school entry, and their families”.

Head Start Collaboration Offices Priorities 1. Partner with State child care systems emphasizing the EHS-CC Partnership Initiatives; 2.  Work with state efforts to collect data regarding early childhood programs and child outcomes; 3.  Support the expansion and access of high quality, workforce and career development opportunities for staff; 4.  Collaborate with QRIS; 5.  Work with state school systems to ensure continuity 6.  Regional Priorities.

Puerto Rico Head Start State Collaboration Office PRHSSCO was first established in Puerto Rico in 1996. Its located at the Governor Social Welfare Advisor’s Office:

Puerto Rico Head Start State Collaboration Office We annually submit a refunding proposal and every five (5) years we need to prepare an strategic plan that responds to our priorities in the different subject areas. In order to submit a quality proposal we meet on a regular basis with the Head Start Association, Head Start Technical Assistance Team, our Fiscal and Programmatic Specialists and different collaborating agencies to get a clear idea of what are the needs and challenges regarding early childhood in Puerto Rico. Our main goal is to serve as facilitators and liaisons between Head Start programs, government agencies and private entities that serve the early childhood population.

PRHSSCO AS FACILITATORS IN GRANT PROPOSALS Healthy Marriages (2006): Collaboration between two (2) municipalities and a faith based organization was awarded in 2006. EHS-CC Partnerships (2014): high-quality care for all low- income infants and toddlers in participating child care programs. Preschool Development Grant (2014): supports States to (1) build or enhance a preschool program infrastructure that would enable the delivery of high-quality preschool services to children, and (2) expand high-quality preschool programs in targeted communities that would serve as models for expanding preschool to all 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families

Preschool Development Grant Historic collaboration between the Departments of Health, Education and Family: recognized as a milestone by representatives from the federal government; Content matter specialists from the agencies worked hand in hand to draft a competitive proposal that came in 6th position, just a few points away from the 5th and last state to be awarded the funds; Previous proposal submitted by the Government of Puerto Rico related to early childhood development obtained a score of 52.2% and PDG obtained a score of 74.6% proving that the agencies can prepare competitive proposals; Through work done for PDG collaboration between Head Start programs and the DE was further enhanced.

Elements for Successful Grant Proposals Strong collaboration between all related agencies; Neutral facilitator/s that can help agencies maintain focus of proposal’s goals; Agencies’ content matter specialists should be involved in all components of the proposal; Support from fiscal staff from day one Access to clear data and statistics to support content.

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success”. Henry Ford

Head Start and Preschool Online Resources http://www2.ed.gov/programs/presc hooldevelopmentgrants/index.html http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc